When Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo steps into the federal courtroom today, he will face his most public confrontation with the scandal that shook the township and school board.

Bencivengo has maintained his innocence in the face of charges that he took $12,400 in bribes in exchange for peddling his influence with members of the local school board.

Jerome Ballarotto, who represents Bencivengo told the Trentonian last month he was confident in his client’s innocence.

“It will take less than two weeks to win this case, because he is innocent of the charges,” said Ballarotto. “What, haven’t you ever heard of innocent person getting charged? … the U.S. Attorney made a mistake and shouldn’t have charged him.”

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Federal agents arrested and charged Bencivengo in April, before indicting him in June. Assistant US Attorneys Harvey Bartle IV and Dustin Chao will prosecute the case.

The scandal further hit the township administration with the guilty plea and resignation of Director of Community Planning and Compliance Rob Warney after being charged with money laundering in June.

Released on a $100,000 unsecured bond, Warney could face as much as 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine at his sentencing, which is now scheduled for Dec. 5.

The Bencivengo trial was delayed last week when Superstorm Sandy rolled through Trenton, closing the federal courts all week. The court reschedule the trial for today. The court will go through jury selection before beginning opening arguments Tuesday.

Presiding over the case will be Federal District Judge Anne E. Thompson, who has held her seat on the federal bench for three decades. Prior to that, she served as a Trenton Municipal Court Judge and Mercer County prosecutor.

Bencivengo said he would be using vacation time during his trial and would designate Business Administrator John Ricci as acting mayor. He declined to comment on his case.

The alleged bribery

The indictment of Bencivengo states that in March and May last year, he solicited a $5,000 bribe from a cooperating witness, whom sources have identified as Marliese Ljuba. The two hid the transaction by cutting a check for that amount to Rob Warney’s wife for a “cherry bedroom set.”

According to court documents, Warney, without his wife’s knowledge, then withdrew the money in small amounts because he “dn’t like to pull out too much at once” and gave it to Bencivengo.

That filing stated Bencivengo would attempt to influence an unnamed member of the Hamilton School Board against bidding out the district’s health insurance brokerage.

Then in June, he approached Ljuba again and said he would need more help to pay a tax bill and personal expenses. In exchange for $7,400, Bencivengo agreed to influence the first school board member, and also assist Ljuba in picking a replacement if a second board member left to become a member of the New Jersey Assembly, according to the indictment.

He then allegedly accepted two payments, one for $2,400 and one for $5,000. The US Attorneys indicted Bencivengo with attempted extortion under color of official right; traveling and using interstate facilities to distribute the proceeds of, and promote and facilitate bribery; and money laundering.

Part of the case seems to include taped conversations with Bencivengo and others in the case. Several taped conversations are mentioned in the mayor’s indictment. Matt Reilly, spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office, said he could not comment on courtroom strategy or whether those tapes might be used.

But at least part of the government’s case may have come out. Last month, government attorneys called a hearing with Warney, the admitted middleman in the case, to make sure that Ballarotto would not have a conflict of interest in cross-examining Warney on the witness stand in Bencivengo’s case.

William Hughes, Warney’s attorney, said Ballarotto had represented his client in a previous case and was not involved with his client’s criminal case. He said the court found at that hearing Ballarotto would not have such a conflict.

He said he also had no comment on whether Warney’s testimony at trial could affect his sentence on his own criminal case.

Effect on the Board of Education

The board has taken a licking from the public over its handling of the Bencivengo case. The board’s behavior in that issue, taken as exemplary of the board as a whole, has become the center point of critique from the field of candidates for the four seats up for election this week.

In addition to the public airing of the way the board’s relationship with the vendor -- which included Warney, a former board member, admitting to taking $10,000 in bribes for a vote as part of his plea deal -- the scandal has raised questions about how the district conducts business.

The state’s Department of Education stepped in to sanction the district, making four findings of deficiency in following the law and its own policy and withholding $25,000 in state aid. Specifically, the district operated without a contract from 2009, failed to specify why it didn’t bid out the contract for Extraordinary Unspecified Services, failed to publicize its attempts to do so, and didn’t abide by state law when extending the contract from 2006 to 2009.

Prior to new Superintendent James Parla taking over, the district used a process called comparative analysis to research pricing for contracts. It involved calling up other districts and asking what they had paid for a specific service before agreeing to a contract with a vendor, Board Member Ron Tola has said.

“There was a culture that existed under previous superintendent and CEO of non-bidding,” Tola said.

This practice doesn’t involve a public bid process and doesn’t necessarily arrive at the lowest bidder, Tola said. The relationship with Allen Associates could have cost the district millions more than it had to in commissions, said Parla, Tola and other board members.

The board dropped Allen Associates after the news of the scandal broke and is currently working with a fee-based contractor until it finds another broker.